DTB: When the Stars vanished
by desy
Summary: This is a story about Xing and her brother and how they coped with the moon and stars vanishing and everything that brought the new sky. And of course, Xing's strange behavior afterwards, becoming slowly the Bai we 'know'.
1. Chapter 1

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_Spoilers:_ Darker Than Black – The Black Contractor (Season1), DTB - Shikkoku no Hana (Manga); DTB – Gaiden (Ova), DTB – Gemini of the Meteor (Season2)

_Rating:_ T (just to be on the safe side)

_Summery_: This is a story about Xing and her brother and how they coped with the moon and stars vanishing and everything that brought the new sky with it. And of course, Xing's strange behavior afterwards becoming slowly the Bai we 'know'. (kinda a PREQUEL to 'Black Dust').

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

**Happy New Year!**

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**DtB: When the stars vanished  
**

Chapter 1

_Day 0_

The stars twinkled from the cloudless sky, almost competing with the moon, whose silver light wrapped the lake-side and the forest beyond into a velvet blanket. At the foot of a small hill sat a dark haired boy, next to him stood a telescope – a real one, not one constructed for children to play with and sate their curiosity. With a gentle smile, the twelve-year old overlooked the scenery and watched his little sister marvel the beauty of the stars, while she whispered her heart's desires to the shooting stars to come true. The girl whirled around, her large blue eyes gleaming with joy about the prospect to become a nurse or an astronaut – the love of the stars must be genetically, though the eight year old wanted to visit the planets surrounding those brightly shining gas giants, whereas her older brother and her parents were satisfied with stargazing on a nightly basis.

More and more stars fell from their place in the sky. The unnatural number made the boy frown, but he shoved his bewilderment to the back of his mind – there was no need to spoil his sister's happiness. But it was no use. As soon as his cell phone rang and signaled that he had a new text message, the brunette girl's hilarity was gone from her features and she approached her beloved brother, her large eyes at the brim of tears. "They aren't coming?" The unspoken 'again' hung heavily in the air.

The boy's smile had also vanished at the disappointment ringing in his sister's voice. His dark blue eyes flew over the letters in the message, before he sent a simple 'OK' back to his father's cell. "They are driving back to the observatory, Xing." He shoved the small phone into his pants' pocket and looked up into his sister's sad features, forcing a reassuring smile onto his lips – he had also looked forward to their parents joining them, but he had gotten used to their overtime by now. But Xing on the other hand still held onto the few times their parents had indeed stolen themselves away from their work to spend some time with their children. He didn't want to take this hope away from her. "I'm sure they'll make it up tomorrow evening." He didn't really believe his words himself, but usually it would make his sister cheer up. But not today.

The girl in the white dress kicked a patch of grass, while her misty eyes searched for her brother's. "Then some other cracking sound from the space or some stupid asteroid would turn up! Just like today!" Her voice was angry and sad at the same time as she felt the misery of constant disappointment envelope her heart.

The older child wanted to respond with soothing words, which would make her feel better, but his eyes caught sight of dark spots in the sky that continuously grew while the stars were raining down towards the Earth. Suddenly his eyes widened when he noticed that the darkening scenery around them didn't only originate from the loss of the starlight. "I don't think it's one of those today." He muttered like in a daze and got to his feet, his gaze pinned to a spot that had been brightly lit in silver just moments before. "Xing… where's the moon?"

Still miserable about her parents' broken promise, the girl turned around and took in the pitch black night-sky. "Oniichan?" Was this her fault? Was it because of her wish to the shooting stars she had made just a few seconds ago? Wishing the rivaling stars away, so she and her brother would have their parents for themselves. "I don't want them gone!" She cried out towards the gods, who had granted her wish. She loved the stars. "Please stop to fall!" She didn't want them gone in the depth of her heart, never had. That thought, that wish had been just a tiny flicker by an upset child – she hadn't really meant it. "Stop." The girl whispered resigned as tears flew down her cheeks and the last bright dots vanished.

"What's going on?" The boy muttered and turned around in circles to take in the entire sky. Black. Only black was left. Not one single star. He looked over to where his sister stood and he suddenly registered that it was so dark that he couldn't see the girl in the bright dress any longer – he could only hear her feet crushing the grass as she slowly moved. Fearful – his awe long gone – the boy reached out and felt for his sister. After a moment and a few steps, he touched her shoulder and slid his hand down to grasp her hand firmly. "Let's go home, Xing." Never before he had been afraid of the darkness, but this was different and it made the hairs on his neck stand up – the animals must feel the same. The silence of the owls and cicadas made the atmosphere even more eerie.

The girl nodded and followed her brother, who used his cell phone as a flashlight. Within seconds the telescope was disassembled and back in its bag. There was this knot in her gut making her stomach hurt and hold tighter onto her brother. Fear and sadness were nagging on her. Her brother would be angry with her if he knew she made his beloved stars vanish. But they usually told each other everything. And her brother was kind. He loved her, she knew this for sure. He had always been there for her. Even when she had broken the mug he had made for their father at school, he had forgiven her. Maybe he would forgive her this too? "Oniichan?" She squeezed his hand and looked up as they made their way to the street lamp lit path. She heard him 'mhm' in responds and struggled with herself if she should tell him and how. Xing didn't know what to do if her brother would hate her. This thought made new tears well up in her ocean-like eyes. "Nothing."

Her brother stared ahead into the darkness, hoping they were going into the right direction – the make-shift flashlight wasn't really of any use. Suddenly a dull spot appeared at the horizon. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the point grew in intensity and with it others began to populate the black sky. First three, then seven, then eleven… soon it were more than twenty and the boy craned his neck to get a better view onto all of them, welcoming the stars. "Look, Xing!" He yelled in relief. "They are returning!"

But his sister was caught up in her miserable thoughts, revolving about scenarios in which her big brother would leave her alone, would tease her or hit her like the brothers of her friends at school would do with their sisters. Her heart was heavy. Then suddenly, the sadness was gone within one heartbeat and a conclusion began to build inside the little girl that the loss of the stars and the moon couldn't be her fault… that a child's wish to a God that might not exist couldn't cause such a gigantic incident.

This was irrational.

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A/N: I hope you like it. Feedback is a wonderful thing.

There are some speculations out in the net, that the mental condition of a person is also responsible that they are affected by the Gate-Particles (radiation) and turn into Contractors (or Dolls). You can take it as you like with this story, but we all know that Xing turned into a Contractor, the HOW is rather unimportant.


	2. Chapter 2

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio and InflatedChimp.

Baba is the Chinese word for Dad (I didn't write papa wrong).

The Mizusawa VERA Observatory is in Japan. Hei's family left China to work there when he was 7 years. (This piece of information will be given in Black Dust).

_Names_: Xing is the Chinese word for 'star'. Since I made their parents astronomers (and their daughter is already called 'star'), I decided to make Hei's real name Tian, meaning 'sky'.

I also doubt that there was 'Li' somewhere in his name. Li is an incredible common family name in China, so it would make a really great alias (like Smith and Miller). His alias identity was provided by the Syndicate and he surely had no say in it.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the Chinese-names-explanation. This whole concept of the hundred family names (Bai Jia Xing - what a coincidence) is really interesting.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

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Chapter 2

_Day 1_

The next morning started like most days did for Tian. His parents were busy at the observatory – after the past night this was no surprise – and it was up to him to make breakfast and bentos for his sister and himself. He made a pancake in the form of a bunny to cheer his sister up – she had been so gloomy last night. "Xing! Hurry!" The boy yelled and turned the volume of the TV up.

"…about half an hour after the appearance of the two phenomena in Brazil and Tokyo and the simultaneous disappearance of the moon and the stars, new stars formed and their numbers are still increasing. We have now a live-link to the Mizusawa VERA Observatory." The NHK-news anchor announced and the screen split to show a dark-brown haired man in his late thirties. "Dr. Chiang, can you tell us more about the happenings of last night? Will the moon return just like the stars did?"

The man in the white lab-coat cleared his throat, before he spoke. "We are currently working together with the observatories of the NASA, ESA and other nations, but at the moment nobody can tell if the moon will return or what had happened with the stars. The only thing we know at this point is that the stars return in new constellations, thus we are re-assigning new codes to them using the Messier code system again." This information made Tian look up from the pan – his heart hurting somewhat about the loss of his beloved stars, but the prospect of watching new stars form made him anxious for the night to come.

The anchor nodded her head and interrupted the man before he could come up with a boring explanation about how they name the stars. "Is it true that all contact with the ISS and satellites were lost and that this is the cause of the service-loss of GPS, satellite-TV and communication on the entire planet?" This was the topic the people really wanted to know about.

"Well, I can't say anything concerning the ISS, but you are right that we don't receive any telemetry from any satellite. At the moment we don't know the reason, but it is unlikely that all satellites ceased their operation at the very same moment due to some malfunction."

"Why did the moon disappear, but the sun is still there? Or is this also a new sun like it is with the stars?" The woman probed and made Dr. Chiang visibly nervous – he had no clue.

"Umm, we don't know this at the moment." The man pressed out.

"Some people are speaking of an alien invasion."

"Umm, well…" The man was at a loss – everyone could see this. "This is very unlikely and there is no reason to this theory. The loss of the night sky and the appearance of those phenomena can be explained scientifically, but we need more time to do so."

By now, Tian was pushing the pancakes on two plates and placed them on the low table next to the couch and TV. He was about to call for his sister, when he heard her voice behind him. "Baba."

He turned around and looked a little surprised that the girl was already dressed and combed – usually she would fall half asleep over the bathroom sink at this time of the day. He eyed her expression as she stared at the TV. "Yep, they interview baba about last night." Her eyes were not as bright and lively as usual and deciphering her features was hard for the boy, but he guessed she was still angry at their parents for the night before and her half-closed eyes made him think that she was still tired. When they returned home last night, Tian had wondered why his sister went straight to her bed and stayed there, usually after their parents broke one of their promises she would crawl into his bed for comfort. Nonetheless he smiled at her. "C'mon. Let's eat breakfast."

The children sat across from each other and Tian looked from time to time up from his shrinking stack of once fifteen pancakes and over to his little sister, who ate in silence. "Umm, shall I switch over to the SailorMoon remake, Xing?" She watched it every morning during breakfast, though she knew the episodes by heart.

The brunette chewed down and looked up, contemplating his question. She remembered that she couldn't wait to watch this show – sometimes she even dressed in front of the TV when she had overslept – but today she wondered why she should waste her time with an irrational fictional story, she already knew. "No, the news is better." It was important to know what was going on in the world, yet her brother guessed she was waiting for another interview with their father – at least this way she would see him.

"How are the pancakes, Xing?" Tian wasn't a morning person and usually it was his sister to stir a conversation, but the boy couldn't get off the feeling that something was bothering her.

The girl looked up again. "They are fine, oniichan." When she returned her gaze to her food, she wondered why her brother had made it into the shape of a bunny-face. She knew from her memories that it had made her always happy, but now she felt nothing – maybe irritation. _'Why does oniichan bother? It's just food that would be chewed and disintegrated by my body anyway. The shape on the plate is irrelevant.'_

Tian gobbled down his tenth pancake and made yet another attempt on small talk. "They said earlier that the schools are open and everyone shall resume their daily routines." He had noticed her attention was still mostly on the news.

This sounded logical. "There is no reason to do something else." People needed to work in order to earn money for their living and with their work they produced things other people needed to sustain their lives and living standards. The disappearance of the stars and the moon was not a life-changing incidence and thus no reason to close down schools and other institutions.

Xing knew, she had known all this before, but before today, there had been too many other things like animes and friends to occupy her thoughts and feelings that she couldn't see the important things. Now everything was clear, yet other stuff made her contemplate things she remembered she had known and understood – she kind of still understood them – but she couldn't figure out the reason for them. Why had she bothered to watch anime? She _knew_ she had liked the shows, but those were not real and had no educational function - thus a waste of time.

Why did she have a pet? Why did she want it in the first place? She remembered she liked to have it crawl on her hands and shoulder. But the hamster was of no use for her or anyone. Its cage used space in her room, the feeding unnecessary time and the food reduced her allowance. There was no rational reason behind keeping a pet.

Why had she been angry and sad about her parents? They were just doing their job, a job that brought food onto their table and a house to live in. It was the rational decision of her parents to choose their work above their children – she and her brother were old enough to dress, go to school, buy groceries by themselves and her brother was a good cook.

This brought the girl's attention to her older brother. The boy, who cooked for her. Her mother always said that siblings needed to stick together and help each other. She understood this. Her brother and she had the same flesh and blood. This concept held some kind of logic. He needed to cook for himself and making a small amount more to sustain his sister – his blood - was not a waste of resources and time for him. Without him she would have to use her allowance to buy food or she could try to cook for herself, but all in all it was best for her when her brother resumed his cooking. "Thank you for the food, oniichan." This was the least she could do to reward him for his work.

Those words made Tian smile at the small brunette, before he wolfed down his last bites. "Let's get going to school."

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A/N: Writing Bai is really hard. I hope you liked it anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio and InflatedChimp.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

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Chapter 3

She had always been an attentive student, but today it was really easy for Xing to concentrate on the lessons and she grasped during her teacher's first explanation how multiplication of numbers larger than ten worked – math had always been her least favorite subject, until now, that is. The brunette still wondered for what she really needed the knowledge of what kind of birds lived in their region or why she should waste 45 minutes with singing or shaking a vibrating bell, but her parents had told her that she and her brother needed good grades in order to get a good job. And a job was necessary to get money for food and a house. So if she needed to know those pointless and trivial things in order to get a good job, then so be it.

The girl at the desk behind her, Minako, threw a small folded piece of paper onto Xing's tabletop. Immediately the brunette's eyes were on the note. She remembered that she used to play games with her friend, but both things had lost their value to her. She wondered why she needed a friend at all. The other girl would only speak of unimportant things or would deviate her attention from her teacher's lectures. In the worst case she would be caught again and had to spend the rest of the period outside the classroom and thus missing valuable explanations for the test next week. That girl was no help – not like her brother was – and thus she was useless for her. Xing returned her gaze to the blackboard and ignored the second scrap of paper that landed a few minutes later on her book.

When the bell eventually rang to free the elementary students for the day, Xing put all her books and notepads neatly into her bag and grasped the two notes of her former friend and crumbled them in her palm before dumping them in the bin next to the door, while she left the classroom.

Minako stared after her confused, when another girl with long brown hair that almost reached her butt, poked her into the side playfully. "Minako-chan, did you give Xing the invitation?"

The questioned girl shook her head and clutched a 'Hello Kitty' card to her chest. "I had no chance, Asuka-chan. During break she didn't show up at the playground and now she didn't even read my messages." She turned her head and her large green eyes searched for her friend's ones. "Is she mad at me?"

The long haired girl thought a moment – their friend Xing was always cheerful and kind. Suddenly a thought dawned on her. "She'll be mad at her parents again. They are surely working the entire time… with the stars gone and all."

Minako's features brightened up. "You're right. Her father was even giving an interview on the TV today!"

"Really!?" a boy eavesdropping them exclaimed skeptically.

Minako faced him. "Yep, Xing's parents are astrologers, Shinji-kun."

"They are astronomers," Asuka corrected, "Let's hurry up and catch her so you can give her the invitation, Minako-chan." The other girl nodded and both ran out of the classroom.

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Xing had already reached the gates of the school when two girls calling her name came to a sudden halt next to her. The Chinese child eyed her classmates, who caught their breaths. Maybe they wanted to accompany her - they had almost the same way home and they usually went together. Xing eyed them and decided that she would simply ignore their senseless chitchat. But suddenly Minako held a pink and white card into her face.

"For you, Xing-chan. I hope you'll come to my birthday-party." Her eyes were sparkling with joy. "My papa will borrow the video-beamer from his work and we can have a karaoke-battle on a screen as big as the entire house!" Minako raised her arms wide into the air to underline her words.

Xing grasped the invitation and looked at it for a long moment before she met the other girl's gaze. "I won't come."

"W-what?" Minako was near tears - she and Xing had been friends since kindergarten – she was the one, who had helped the girl to speak proper Japanese when her family had immigrated from China. "Why? Are you mad at me?"

Xing stared with her half-closed eyes at the girl. "I'm not mad at you. There is no rational reason why I should attend your birthday-party."

"B-but we are friends." Minako's voice was small and shaking.

"Friendship is based upon irrational emotions. None of us gains anything from it." It were usually the other two, who asked her for her homework – if it would have been the other way around Xing would have decided otherwise. "Now, leave me alone." She said in her emotionless tone and pushed past the two shocked girls, letting the card drop into a trash can she walked past.

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When she returned to their two-story house in record time – no unnecessary stops at kiosks or long good-byes from her friends – the girl fished for her key in her skirt's pocket. Unfortunately it fell to the paved ground and Xing had to kneel down in order to retrieve it. Her small hand grasped the metal just when an ant ran over the key and onto her finger. She remembered that she usually shook her hand to get it off quickly, but now, while she watched the insect crawl up her wrist and arm, an alien _feeling_ – it was more a knowledge - overwhelmed her. It was like on instinct that she mentally dove into this sudden awareness and activated a power, she knew her old emotion-driven self didn't possess – or had at least not been able to realize that something more was slumbering inside her.

Her gaze was still pinned to the ant when her blue eyes lit up in an eerie red and a blue hue enveloped her entire body. It took only a split second and the lights were gone with the insect falling dead to the ground.

Xing's eyes widened slightly. A part of her was surprise, yet another one somehow had _known_ all along what would happen. The girl couldn't explain it. Her view fell upon the line of tiny ants running busily up and down the bed-edge to their hole. Yawning, the brunette placed her finger in the middle of their track and called upon that power again, while a few insects were already climbing up her hand. To the girl's bewilderment – this emotion felt like a shadow of its former self in the back of her mind – only the small number of ants touching her skin lay now motionless next to their still busy companions, who were now carrying their bodies back home in order to eat them. _'It's only working on my skin.'_ The girl noted while her mind became cloudy by tiredness.

She felt this sudden urge to close her eyes. Therefore she fetched the key from the ground next to her and did _it_ again to get the ants running from the metal onto her palm off. It surprised her to see the two insects still on the key, also fell to the ground dead. _'It's not working on stone, but on skin and metal.'_ Xing concluded and wondered on what other materials her new power worked, when she felt herself slump down. She was able to cushion her head with her arm from the impact on the hard pavement, but she couldn't do anything against the enormous fatigue that overtook her body and mind. Some part of this new knowledge _told_ her that a struggle would be in vain – that she needed to sleep no matter what. So, the girl complied and closed her heavy lids.

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A/N: This chapter war really hard to write, especially the part with Xing using her power for the first time. Feedback is a wonderful thing.


	4. Chapter 4

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio, InflatedChimp and YellowWomanontheBrink.

_YellowWomanontheBrink_: I forgot to state it in the first chapter, but English is not my native tongue. This might be the reason for the not so good flow of words you mentioned.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

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Chapter 4

It was almost 3:30pm when Tian turned the corner and approached his home, his schoolbag dangling from his shoulder. He was contemplating what he should cook for a late lunch and figured that for supper he would still be alone with his sister tonight, when his eyes caught sight of his sister's unconscious form on the path between his mother's flower-beds. His heart was beating a mile a second as he ran over to her. His hands hovered a moment over her body, afraid to do something wrong and harm her more. A beat later, the dark haired boy held his sister in his arms – a part of her pulled onto his lap – as he looked her up and down for any signs of wounds or blood. He sighed in relief when he saw that she was unharmed and breathing… and turning in his arms to nestle her head against his chest. _'She's sleeping?!'_

Tian figured that his little sister must have looked at their mother's flowers again and had simply fallen asleep – she had looked really tired this morning with her half-closed eyes. With a gentle smile on his lips the boy lifted the girl up and carried her with some difficulty inside their house – he wasn't strong at all and he had nearly dropped her during his struggle with the lock and his arms being full. He placed her onto the couch and returned to their garden to pick her bag and key from the floor.

Back inside he walked by the small table, the phone was perched up on, just as said phone began to ring. Quickly the boy reached for the receiver, so the noise would stop and not wake his sister up. "Here at Chiangs' residence, you're speaking with Tian." The child said politely and listened to Minako's mother at the other end of the line. "No, my parents aren't here, Hinamori-san. They are still working." Tian felt responsible for his little sister – this had always been so – that's why he inquired the information that usually would have been his parents' duty to ask. "May I help you instead? Did something happen at school?" The boy listened carefully to the woman's description of how her daughter returned home in tears. "I promise I'll talk to my sister, Hinamori-san. But I'm sure Minako-chan didn't do anything to put her off. Xing hadn't slept well last night and was maybe cranky. She's currently taking a nap." His gaze rested on her peacefully sleeping form.

Tian waited almost half an hour till his sister eventually woke up - their small lunch consisting of ramen needed only one more minute to be ready. Stirring the food, he watched her stretch and rub her eyes. "Slept well?"

The small brunette turned her head towards her brother's voice, a little surprised about her surroundings. "I was outside." She stated - her voice even.

Tian chuckled and took the pot with the noodle-soup to the small table on which they have had their breakfast. "Yep, that's where I found you." He returned to the kitchen and fetched two bowls, two pairs of chopsticks, glasses and a carton of mango-juice. "I carried you inside."

The girl got up from the couch only to sink down onto the floor two steps away – her place at their low dining–table. "Why?" She wondered out loud. Why did her brother bother where she slept? The couch was surely better than the hard and cold floor outside, yet it didn't explain why her brother cared about how comfortable she was while sleeping. Everything would do as long as she could sleep.

Eyeing the girl startled about the question, her brother also got down to the floor and poured soup into both bowls before placing one in front of his sister. "What do you mean, Xing? Should I have left you lying on the cold stones, so you would catch a cold?"

The brunette scrutinized the boy, who was already shoveling the noodles in. He had a point there. Still, it didn't explain why he would care if she was sick or not. She remembered her emotions. She also hadn't wanted her brother to be sick, or anyone else in her family, but now her shoved-away feelings didn't matter. Love didn't matter anymore. It was just an emotion that complicated her thinking. It was better now. Everything was so much easier and clearer. Yet, she knew it was good what her brother had done for her. "Thank you, oniichan."

"No problem." He peeked over the rim of his bowl and took in her lidded gaze. "You still look a little tired."

"I'm not tired," Xing responded and began to eat.

A few minutes ticked away before Tian approached the subject of the phone-call. "Why won't you go to Minako's birthday party? Her mother called and said that you threw the invitation away and said her daughter that she wasn't your friend any longer." This behavior sounded very unlike his friendly sister.

"She's just a waste of time."

Tian almost choked on his food and coughed a few times before his voice returned to his normal tone. "What?!" He stared at her incredulously. "She's your best friend for five years!" He frowned about her unchanging features. "Did something happen between you two, that you don't like her anymore?"

The girl shook her head. "No. The only reason why I've spent time with her was my feelings for her. But it's irrational to act upon feelings."

Her brother was at a loss of words for a long while. "But you had fun with her." What the hell was wrong with his little sister?

"Fun is also an unnecessary emotion." Xing saw her brother's completely bewildered expression. "Fun was the only thing I gained from my friendship with Minako and Asuka, which wouldn't be a bad thing alone. But both kept disturbing me during classes and even got me punished in the past. I need good grades to get a good job. They are hindrances for this goal." Somehow, this explanation wasn't getting to her brother – his features didn't change – they only got more shocked.

"Am I a hindrance, too?" He brought out after a good two minutes of contemplation.

"No." This was an easy answer and she didn't even have to lie – not that lying would have been a problem now. She wondered why this thought came up at all. Why should she bother to sugar-coat her words in order to not hurt her brother's feelings? This was an irrational thought and she guessed it originated from her memories and emotions for her big brother, she had looked up to. But anyway, he was supporting her with cooking and taking care of her health – he was no hindrance for her.

The rest of the meal was spent in uncomfortable silence – at least uncomfortable for the boy, who wondered and worried about his sister.

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A/N: Comments please.


	5. Chapter 5

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio, InflatedChimp, YellowWomanontheBrink and fbiuzz.

_fbiuzz_: Thanks for pointing the emotions-part out. I knew this. I rewatched (a few times) DTB and when Tanya became a contractor, she seemed completely emotionless – different than 'older' contractors like Mao, April, Amber, Bai; hell, even Yin and July have shown more emotion than Tanya did. I believe the transformation kinda shocked her so deeply and she needed time (which she didn't get thanks to Shion) to get in touch with her emotions again. (I don't count her act to lure her ex-boy-friend in that was just an act)

Suou was a different kind of story, since she was no real contractor – Hei kinda made her a contractor as his power hit/manipulated the meteor shard that held her memories. She even had a red star and her power was different than that of all other contractors (she/ her meteor shard materialized a weapon; all others manipulate elements or things or minds).

I think in the first few weeks of a new contractor the emotions might be really deep buried and will only 'awaken' slowly with time. Kinda like it is with the Dolls, only not that crass. I think since the Dolls are the 'real thing' (Contractors are just defective Dolls/ humans, who didn't turn successfully into Dolls - see Gaiden) and seem much more powerful (Yin in Gaiden - I think Izanami used Yin's powers as its own) Dolls need a much longer time to re-adjust to their new condition and thus need much longer to regain their 'touch' with their emotions than Contractors do.

I hope you are fine with my explanation.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

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Chapter 5

The rest of the afternoon was spent with homework at the low table in the living-room. Like always Tian checked his sister's work for mistakes. It was almost like every day, only that the girl would concentrate much better – she used to change her position on the floor every few minutes – on knees, her butt or Indian style legs crossed – or she had built towers with her pens and rubbers. But nothing there like today.

During supper, their mother had called from work and informed Tian that she and his father would stay the night at the observatory, but planned to return home the next evening – if not something unforeseeable would happen.

After washing the dishes – both siblings did this like always together – Xing sat in front of the TV and watched the news. There wasn't anything new. The scientists were still at a loss what concerned the phenomena and the lost night sky, while the U.S.A and other countries had raised their alert conditions. They assumed by now that about five million people died because of the two phenomena and the countless traffic accidents everywhere on the planet due to the sudden loss of GPS.

The brunette turned the TV off and approached her brother's room. "Where are you going?" She inquired as she observed him gather his telescope and two flashlights.

"Stargazing, of course."

"Why?"

This question made Tian look up to the girl with a frown. "Because it's my hobby."

"I know that. But it's irrational to waste time with watching something that won't influence your life."

The boy was gaping slightly at his three and a half year younger sister. "Those are pretty big words, Xing." He had noticed her change in speaking the entire afternoon and evening. Maybe she had caught onto those words by watching the news? "Are you coming?"

Xing contemplated her options: Here at home she couldn't do anything – the news were repeating itself with the scientists' ignorance about the events of the former night. Out there on the lawn would be insects she could use to learn more about her new ability. "I'll come, oniichan."

Her words brought a smile onto the boy's features, yet her expression remained stoic.

* * *

At their usual place near the lake, Tian was watching the few hundred new stars with interest and awe – some were very dim, but most were bright and a special one had his undivided attention – while his sister was near the water. The eight-year-old was kneeling next to a few fireflies that sat on the leaves of a tiny bush. She had tried to kill them while she held onto the dried leaf one insect hung on, but this hadn't the desired effect. Her next try was to hold her fingertip a centimeter from the glow worm. She called upon her new ability – her eyes glowing red and her body blue – and suddenly a bluish light jumped from her finger to the insect, killing it immediately. _'Lightening?!'_ Xing was surprised.

She felt a little tired, but this new information kept her mind occupied. _'Mama always says that during a storm you shouldn't be near or inside water because of the lightening.'_ The girl got up, dipped her hand into the cool lake only to retrieve it quickly to pour a small river onto the plant and the insects. When she was done, she held onto the highest wet leaf and activated her power, zapping all fireflies at once.

Tian hadn't noticed any of his sister's activities or the unnatural glowing of her body. "You have to see this, Xing! One of the new stars is growing brighter and shaking!" The boy stared in awe at the active dot. "I haven't seen something like this before!"

Xing heard her brother call her a few more times, before she felt fatigue threatened to overtake her and she eventually got to her feet and approached the boy – leaving a more or less exploded plant behind. "Oniichan?"

Her brother made a face and looked up from the telescope. "You're too late, Xing. The star just stopped shaking a moment ago." He returned his eyes to the telescope. "I'll tell you when it does it again."

The girl wasn't interested in this star's weird behavior. She was too tired to do anything at all and laid down next to her brother onto the grass.

To Tian's disappointment, the star didn't resume to shudder. But he could observe the formation of two new stars. Yawning, he glanced onto his watch. It was past 10pm. He looked over to his sleeping sister and sighed – he hated to have to disturb her sleep. "Xing, wake up." He gently shook her by the shoulder. "It's really late. We have to get home." The girl didn't react and he repeated his action with more force. "Xing!"

"I'm tired, oniichan." The girl mumbled eventually with one eye cracked open, before turning around and resuming her slumber.

"Xing." He stared at her in disbelief. "You can sleep in your bed." But the girl didn't react and he gave up for the moment. He turned his attention back to his telescope and disassembled it, while his gaze travelled over to where the moon had been the night before. The moon and stars had always been constancies in his life. They had always been there for him when his parents weren't. Not even in his worst nightmares he would have imagined that the moon and all stars would vanish – nobody had thought this. The boy shook his head and crouched down next to his sister. "Xing, we really have to go now." He took her by the arm and pulled her carefully up a little bit.

"Oniichan…" Xing groaned and opened her eyes reluctantly – she was still a little tired, but it was by far not so bad anymore like it had been an hour before.

"C'mon. Let's go home."

The girl let herself be pulled to her feet and followed her brother – he was still holding onto her hand. She remembered that they would often walk with their hands joined. She didn't know what this was good for – other than not loosing someone in a crowd – but it didn't bother her, so she didn't break the contact. After a while, they were half way at home, she looked up to her brother. "Oniichan, what do you know about lightening?"

Tian's lips curled into a small smile – this was more like the little sister he knew. "Well, lightening is a natural electrical current."

"Electrical current? Like from the sockets?"

The boy nodded. "Yep, just much, much stronger."

"It doesn't work on all things, does it?" The brunette probed.

"No. Only conductive things will carry the current. Plastic, air, glass and stones are not conductive." Tian explained patiently. His sister would always come up with such questions - last time he googled why ice was swimming on top of water. He didn't like to make some story up and lie to her.

"What is conductive, oniichan?" This was easier than her trial-and-error from before. "Other than water."

"Well, metals of course." Tian lifted his hand and ran his fingers through his dark mane. "I don't know of more."

"Skin is conductive."

"You're right." He smiled down on his sister. She really was a bright girl.

A few minutes later, they arrived at home and went straight to their beds.

* * *

A/N: So, guess whose star lil' Hei watched…


	6. Chapter 6

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio, InflatedChimp and Saywer. Thanks to InflatedChimp for pointing out the typos.

The thing with the languages (that Hei and Bai speak Japanese while their parents talk to them in Mandarin) I observe with Turkish families (the ones with already the 3rd or 4th generation living in Germany): The parents talk in Turkish while their children answer in German.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

* * *

Chapter 6

_Day 2_

The next morning was like the one before: Xing was ready before her brother had set up the breakfast-table and both ate in silence while watching the news. At school Xing kept to herself again and neither Minako nor Asuka or someone else bothered to talk to her during the breaks. Well, both girls had shot her dark and hurt gazes, but Xing simply ignored them and spent her free time in the school's library to look up more information about her electrical ability. But other than a stupid story about 'why children shouldn't touch the inner of a socket' and a small encyclopedia entry, she came up empty-handed. It was the library of an elementary school after all.

When Xing returned home and opened the door, she was surprised to smell curry in the air. It was too early for her brother to be at home. She got out of her shoes and approached the person working in the kitchen, while she heard the TV was running in the living-room. "Mama?" She hadn't anticipated seeing her this early.

The middle-aged black haired woman, Linh, looked up from the wok and over to her child with a smile on her lips. She placed the spoon to the side and stepped up to the little girl, hugging her dearly. "I missed you, Xing. I'm really sorry that we couldn't come to watch the stars with you and your brother," she said in Mandarin.

Xing only stood there – her arms at her sides – until her mother eventually broke away and looked into her eyes. "You had to work. The stars and the moon vanished. I understand this." The girl answered in Japanese. She could speak both languages. While her parents used to speak in Chinese at home, she and her brother usually answered in Japanese. The only times the children spoke in Mandarin in public were when they didn't want their friends or passersby to understand.

"Really?" Linh asked a little worried and saw her daughter nod. Something was wrong with her child, her smile was amiss and her eyes were half-closed. She sighed. "I promise, when we aren't busy any longer we'll go on vacation for a weekend. Only baba, Tian and the two of us."

"OK." Xing nodded and went over to the counter to fetch four glasses and a carton ice-tea. "I'll bring this to the table." She informed her mother, who watched her go with a really bad conscience. Inside the living-room her father sat on the couch and watched a report about the strange radiation that still leaked from the phenomena. The Japanese government finally admitted the existence of this officially harmless radiation, yet the authorities were currently evacuating a 10km radius around the phenomenon with the help of the military.

Xing placed the glasses and tea onto the low table and her schoolbag next to it, before she sat down on the couch. "Xing." Her father said and leaned over to hug his daughter, who once again didn't return the affection and kept staring at the TV-screen. He sighed and pressed a kiss to her brown hair – she was upset about the broken promise and he couldn't blame her. "Sweetie, I know it's hard to understand and I know you would like to spend all your time with mama and me… I would love to do so too, baby-girl… but what happened the night before yesterday is really affecting many people and many, many people got hurt badly." By now, he had turned her around slightly and his hands rested on her small shoulders.

The girl looked up at him with her lidded eyes and emotionless expression. "I know, baba. They said more than five million people died and the numbers are still increasing."

Fa hadn't wanted to confront his little daughter with the hard truth that the people had actually died, but now _he_ was shocked about the casualness the girl spoke with. Maybe she hadn't realized that this all had really happened and she thought it to be a bad movie?

Just then the door opened and Tian walked in with a small frown on his face. "Baba, I thought you would come later. I wanted to surprise you with dinner."

His father got up and ruffled the boy's black hair. "And we wanted to surprise the two of you." He said with a smile that didn't last long. "We have to get back to the observatory before dusk."

Tian ran his flat hand over his tousled mane and took a deep breath before he forced a small smile. "I'd anticipated something like this." He saw his father's face fall and added quickly. "I guess you'll have to work this weekend, but may Xing and I accompany you to the observatory?" From time to time the siblings were allowed to spend an entire night up and watching their parents' work.

The man smiled about his son's understanding temper. "I'll see what I can do, but some men from the government showed up today and they didn't give the impression of leaving soon."

The boy's eyes widened. "The government? Why do they bother about astronomical data?"

His father shrugged and returned to his spot on the couch. "I have no clue, Tian."

"They might want to control what you say in another interview." Xing peeped up and made both males look at her surprised. This was the only rational explanation.

Her brother nodded slowly. "You might be right." He then looked at his father. "Maybe they don't want anyone to know about the stars' weird behaviors. Last night I watched one go bright and shudder several times!"

Fa smiled about his son's enthusiasm that made his dark eyes gleam with joy. "I know. There were others later that night and two this morning." He saw this had spiked the boy's interest. "You have to keep this to yourself, you two, but we even observed a nova form last evening with heavy pulsing the entire time and then when we thought it couldn't shudder any wilder it practically went haywire for a few minutes, only to return to its former shaking rhythmus until this noon, when it started its wild shaking again."

"Wow! Do you have any ideas of what is causing this abnormal activity, baba?"

The man leaned back with a sigh. "I have no idea, son."

* * *

The family sat eating at the low table with Xing furthest away from the TV screen. While everyone else watched the news once again, the little girl was occupied with her powers and her meal. Until now she had found out that the chopsticks wouldn't transport her electrical current to the rice to make it pop. But as soon as their wood was soaked with the curry sauce, it worked to some extent and a couple grains jumped from her bowl onto the tabletop. Nobody noticed or seemed to mind and Xing continued to play with her food until a good portion of the rice surrounded her bowl and she had fallen asleep next to it.

Fa shook his head over his son's seventh finished bowl as the screen switched back from a map of the anomaly-affected area of Tokyo to the news anchor. "The government is still adamant about their statement that the radiation is harmless, but their evacuation of the general public in a 10km radius surrounding the phenomenon in Tokyo, which is called by a few residents _Hell's Gate,_ gives a different impression. You may wonder why this name, _Hell's Gate_, became rather popular among the locals, but it's due to several reports of ghosts of relatives appearing or strange incidences like rooms switching their places within a flat. Some people assume this to be a perception disorder caused by the radiation. The government negates this vehemently, but all affected people are examined thoroughly by doctors from the authorities. This all leads to the conclusion that the radiation might not be as harmless as the government wants to make us believe."

"Ghosts?!" Tian repeated curiously while his father ignored his excited face. "Good that we are far away from the capital." He said while the TV showed a map of Japan and the possible way of the wind-carried radiation. The data was gathered by weather balloons since the weather satellites had vanished.

When the news was finally over, all three returned their gazes to the table and eventually registered the youngest family member. "She's so cute, my little angel." Linh breathed with a gentle smile as she brushed a brown strain from the girl's relaxed face.

"Seeing the area surrounding her meal I would rather call her a little piggy." Her husband said with a smirk. "This would never happen to Tian."

The boy narrowed his eyes at his father. "Not funny at all." He figured that his sleeping sister wouldn't eat her lunch when it was cold, so he leaned forward and snatched the bowl. He grasped her chopsticks to remove them only to let go of them a second later, holding his hand. "Oww!"

"What's wrong?" Fa asked as he lifted his daughter up to carry her to her bed.

"I got zapped by the chopsticks!" Tian had an eyebrow raised at the eating-utensil in disbelief.

* * *

A/N: I hope you like this chappie.


	7. Chapter 7

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life and Saywer. Thanks to Dear4Life for pointing out some grammar-errors.

_Dear4Life_: I also think that the real sky still exists – my theory will be explained in this chapter. I just got the impression that the sky-change-incident began to happen in the one flashback (I think it was S1 ep.23) when little Hei was watching the stars with Xing (that's the first chapter of this story). In the flashback were already many shooting stars to see, so I took it and went from there. The Gates do turn the physical laws upside-down, so they might have caused this illusion of all stars falling…

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 7

_Day 6_

Just like Tian had anticipated it, his parents were working at the weekend and to his dismay the black suits from the government hadn't allowed them to bring their kids. The security was incredible tight by now, what baffled his father and made him suspicious of why the government was suddenly _this_ interested in their work. The few probes the NASA and ESA had shot towards the sky had detonated at about 135km height. This was classified information, Fa had eavesdropped two black suits talk about, just like the conclusion that the entire planet was surrounded by some kind of force field. This scenario held the possibility that the ISS and all satellites were still intact, just cut off the Earth – or rather the other way around: The Earth was cut off the whole universe. Inside a gigantic bubble.

Rumors had come up the former days that the new sky was caused by the two gates that were situated at exact opposite sides of the planet. This at least no government negated – but the exact timing spoke for itself. But now, some countries' authorities even speculated openly that the radiation leaking from the gates and the high peak of this radiation the moment of the phenomena-appearance was indeed responsible for the lost sky.

By now, a first probe had verified that every human and animal inside the misty Hell's Gate was dead. The military had begun to build a fence at the end of the evacuated zone, so no one not authorized would come near the phenomenon.

Then there were the rumors about people acting strange, uncaring about others. The first speculations revolved about the radiation being the cause. But there were also many cases of apathetically people in Europe, Africa and Australia – far away from the Gates and the official radiation-particle ways. So the official explanation – supported by all nations – was that the people were extremely traumatized by the happenings six days ago and the many million deaths since then.

Luckily, Fa's family was safe and sound.

At the Chiangs' house the siblings were in their small garden, hanging the laundry up. Xing gave another wet shirt to her brother to place onto the string while she watched a family with their little son walk by their fence. "Oniichan? Why do people have children? Children cost money, time and space. There is no reason to burden yourself with a family."

This was again one of her weird questions. "Well… many people want to have children. To have someone to love and who loves them back," Tian hoped she would let _love_ count as a valid answer this time.

"Emotions are irrational. So why?"

He really wondered what had gotten her to the conviction that emotions wouldn't count and that it was better to cast those irritating feelings aside. He had asked her yesterday and all she said was that emotions were unnecessary and even a hindrance to achieve what one would want. The boy sighed. "They want to have something that connects them with their partner," Tian guessed - his sister was asking really difficult questions… or she was making easy questions terribly difficult, only since recently.

"Having a partner to think about and to share your resources is irrational. You gain nothing of it. You only lose time, money and space," Xing repeated.

The boy sighed again, this was really hard. He really tried to get the train of thought of his little sister. "Okay, you want to know a real thing you can touch that people gain when they have a family?" He saw her contemplate a moment and then nod. He sighed again and began to really think about her words. She had indeed a point, if you left out love, there wasn't much left. "Well, baba and mama send money to their parents in China."

"Another reason why family is ineffective." She handed him her freshly washed white dress, the last piece.

"Let me get to the point, Xing," Tian chided, "At a certain age people are too old to work for their living and then their children have to provide for them." Then a thought came up and he quickly added, "They also pay the retirement homes."

Xing mulled this information over. "I think I understand this now. The money and time parents invest into their children is what they gain later when they are old and their children have to come up with the money. It's like a payment in advance."

The black haired boy nodded and lifted the empty basket up, ready to go, but was stopped by his sister's voice. "But what do siblings gain from each other?" Xing knew, what she gained from her brother's presence: Food, care for her health, help with the homework and information about stuff like this. He on the other hand didn't gain anything except her company. It was irrational of him to solely act onto his feelings for her – he was reducing his own resources – time and energy.

Again a heavy sigh escaped his lips, this question kind of hurt him – he had always thought that he and his sister shared a special bond, that she loved him – but that time was gone and whatever had happened to his beloved sister had changed her dramatically. Yet for him, she was still his baby-sister he had wished for as a kindergartener and he wouldn't give up on her.

Maybe it was onto him to understand her in order to make her understand the world the way she used to. "Well, siblings help each other out… can take care of the other ones' children. Help out when the parents need something." He scrutinized her blank features, and guessed that she wasn't really satisfied. "Think about it like this: I cook for you and you will make my bed from now on. This way every one of us gains something of the other's presence." He saw her eyes widen slightly in surprise – she hadn't anticipated this turn of events – and Tian was happy to see a human reaction on his sister's features. He didn't intend to make his sister work for him, for one he loved her dearly and secondly, he loved cooking for others, not only for himself. But he began to understand her thinking and logic.

Xing's expression returned to its by now normal blankness and half closed eyes. "This is a rational decision of you, oniichan."

* * *

This evening, their parents came home to finally spend a night at their house and an entire evening with their children. "Tian? Xing? We are at home!" Fa yelled somewhat as he and his wife slipped from their shoes and entered their small hall. A moment ticked away and Tian was by their side – coming from the kitchen – and hugged his mother's waist.

"You're here." He had his doubts if they would indeed make it. "Supper is almost done."

"This sounds great. I'm so hungry, I might eat as much as you today," the man joked about his son's unnatural appetite.

"You're still not funny, baba," Tian said and stood still while he got his welcome-hair-tousling.

In the meantime Linh had entered the living room and found her daughter being in the land of dreams. "Oww, Xing's so cute when she sleeps." She leaned down and stroked the child's head gently.

"Again?" Tian hurried after his mother and stared at his sister with worried disbelief. "She slept the entire night and had a nap around one."

His mother frowned in concern. "Are you sure she slept at night and didn't spend it playing with her GameBoy again?"

The boy shook his head. "No. She had a nap the last four days, Friday even two, so I wanted to know what she did during the night. I had my alarm clock set at midnight, two and four in the morning and every time I looked for her, she was sleeping soundly." It sounded even more scaring when he summed the last days up. Something was wrong with his sister. Why hadn't he noticed this before?

Fa had listened and was now afraid for his little girl. "Why haven't you told us earlier, Tian?"

His eyes were becoming misty and a knot formed in his gut as he shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't realize that she slept so much until yesterday."

"Is she sick?" Linh muttered under her breath and stepped closer to her son. "Does she say if something hurts? Does she eat well?"

Tian felt terrible for not noticing earlier. "She eats like always and she never complained about anything."

"Have you tried to keep her awake?"

"No, baba."

The man approached the couch and his daughter. He gently shook her by the shoulder, but needed to become more forceful to wake her – this circumstance alone worried him. "Xing, wake up, sweetie."

The girl looked up with her sleepy blue eyes. "What's wrong, baba?"

He pulled her gently to her feet and led her away from the furniture she could sit on. "You need to stay awake. It's not normal that you sleep this much."

The girl frowned tiredly at her father and her lidded gaze travelled over to her brother. "Too much?" How can they say she slept too much – she was still so very tired.

"Did you sleep last night?" Tian asked though he knew the answer and was confirmed with a nod. "Did you fall asleep quickly?" Again a nod. "You went to bed at 8pm and got up at about 7:30am, then you made a nap of two hours and now you want to sleep again… you already slept 14 hours… Friday must have been at least 16 hours." The boy felt sick to the stomach hearing those numbers and saw his sister's emotionless features turn to a slightly gaping expression.

"I slept this much?" The girl asked and was surprised while she stifled a yawn.

Linh was crying by now. "12 hours are much at her age!" She sank down to her knees and grasped her daughter by the shoulders, looking straight into the girl's tired eyes. "Please tell me the truth, Xing. I won't be angry if you were up all night, but did you really sleep through the entire night today?"

It was hard at the moment to measure if a lie was better than the truth. But soothing her mother with a lie would be bad if something was indeed wrong with her. "I slept." She saw her surroundings blur, before her mind gave into the overwhelming fatigue.

Linh's eyes widened in panic as she caught her daughter's collapsing body. "She's unconscious!" She cradled her closer while her husband got to his knees next to them.

"Xing! Wake up!" Her father screamed and shook her rather harshly – fear for his daughter was nagging on him. "Xing!"

The girl cracked one eye open and mumbled, "Let me sleep, please." Her eye closed again. "I need to." This growing urge to sleep was the only thing her exhausted mind could register.

* * *

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter!

Thanks to Dear4Life and InflatedChimp to point out some typos.


	8. Chapter 8

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life and Saywer.

Many thanks to Wikipedia…

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 8

_Day 7_

Fa had spent the night at the computer and was now almost sure that his daughter had narcolepsy, a sleep disorder, which causes the affected people to fall asleep spontaneously during the day, even when they slept the entire night. Apparently an EEG during sleep could make sure, so he had called several specialists in the closer vicinity and even Tokyo and he had gotten an appointment for the day after tomorrow. His wife would accompany Xing while he would be needed at the observatory.

Due to their daughter's sickness, both parents would have preferred that Xing stayed at home, but the girl had assured them that she never before fell asleep at school and that she needed to attend because of a math-test. Reluctantly, they brought her to school on their way to work. Linh would take the next days off and would return this early afternoon to pick their daughter up from school, so nothing could happen to her on her way home. Fa also planned to come home in the evening.

Tian was glad that his parents finally took their time for Xing – it was only bad that his sister had to be sick to make them change their priorities. When he returned home, his mother and sister were already waiting for him with the meal. Like the former week Xing was rather quiet and her brother smiled at her, when he looked up from his plate to get a second. "How was the test?"

The small brunette swallowed her bite. "Fine. I'll pass."

Her mother smiled at her and filled her son's plate once again. "You sound sure of yourself, Xing." Usually the girl would pray that she passes a math test – she was bright and a very good student, just not in this one subject.

"I studied and my homework was always correct. The equations were easy." Without her fear nagging on her nerves and attention, the test had been quickly and effectively solved.

Later, when they were done with their homework and Linh had asked about hundred times if Xing was really not tired – she was getting on Tian's nerves – Fa returned home only to find his daughter alone in her room sticking her finger into the socket. "Xing!" He was next to her in an instant and got a little zapped as he pulled her small body away. "Why did you do this?! You could die!" He had her grasped tightly by the shoulders and stared at her terrified as the rest of the family came running. "You know that touching a socket is dangerous!"

"I didn't get hurt." The girl said in her even tone and was about to move from her father's hard grip on her, but with no success.

Her carefree attitude spiked desperate fear in her father. What had gotten into his daughter now? "Are you crazy, Xing?!" He looked straight into her lidded blue eyes. "You could die! You'll never do this again! Understood?!" He needed to reattach the child-safeties to the sockets.

Xing stared at her father. She didn't understand his emotional outburst - she was fine after all. Curious about her abilities, she had touched the two metal clips inside the plastic socket with two fingertips – getting purposely into contact with the conductors was really hard. She wanted to know what would happen, but just as she had anticipated - she had mulled over this experiment for several days – she had felt the energy flowing into her, but nothing else. No pain, no death – those things would be illogical to happen to someone who could produce electricity with their entire body. "I won't do it again," she eventually said to make her father let her go. This was no lie, there was no need to repeat this experiment.

"Good." Fa stared at her with intensity, but his daughter's expression remained unfazed – like she didn't care at all. He was at a loss and decided to have a closer look onto the girl's doings from now on. But for now, he got to his feet and turned to his crying wife and horrified son.

It had shaken Linh to the bones that her daughter would do something like this – she was almost nine years old. What child her age would stick their finger into a socket? She was old enough to know that this was very dangerous. What was wrong with her little girl? She leaned into her husband searching for strength when he came and hugged her while Tian took his sister by the hand, fetched some card-game from her shelf and led her out of the room – giving their parents some privacy to calm down and discuss things.

In the living-room the boy dropped down on the couch and opened the game's box, his eyes on his sister. "Why did you touch a socket? This is irrational." He used one of _her_ words on purpose – there really was no reason why someone would do this.

Xing stared at her brother for a moment, contemplating his words. He was right; it was a highly irrational behavior for someone without her abilities. "You are right, but I knew I wouldn't get hurt."

The boy looked at her like she had grown a second head and stopped to shuffle the cards in shock. "WHAT?!"

"It was the logical conclusion." The girl said and turned the TV on with the remote just as their parents entered the room.

Their mother still had some tears shimmer in her blue eyes, when she sank down next to her children onto the sofa and hugged Xing. The girl on the other hand didn't hug her back and only flipped through the channels until she reached a news channel. Linh frowned. "You can watch your Sailor Moon, sweetie." She had just caught sight of some of those pink haired characters with the ridicules large eyes.

Xing shook her head. "No, I don't watch them anymore." She said in her emotionless tone – her parents had finally registered that not only the words she used differed but also her voice sounded a little different – the always happy and high tone was missing.

Tian had seen the suspicious gazes his parents threw each other, but kept the reason he had eventually figured for her disinterest to himself – there was no need to give his mother another reason to cry. He just hoped that his sister would refrain from explaining how time-wasting and irrational card playing was. It was seldom that they played something together as a family. Most games were for more than two players and though they were both popular at school and had friends, they still had spent most time at home with chores and studying. And now since last week, Tian was the only one with friends left – and a few female classmates, who just won't stop ogling him.

Xing took the offered cards and was about to say that she saw no point in playing UNO, when she saw the intense gaze her brother gave her. "We don't have anything else to do and we can still watch the news while playing." Her brother explained. The little brunette concluded that he had a point – a weak one – and looked down onto her cards while listening to the television. Their parents looked startled about their son's words for a moment before they also took their cards.

The news were like always about the lost sky and the two Gates – the Brazilian one was now officially christened Heaven's Gate in response to Tokyo's Hell's Gate. But now more local events got larger time-slots and so it happened that the anchor summed up the three tornado-incidences in Tokyo that occurred the former day and this morning just as he was interrupted by the message of yet another tornado taking place just in that very moment.

Only then Fa's cell rung and he immediately answered it. After a moment of listening, he gave the order to further keep taps on that particular star. When he had closed the connection, he saw the questioning gazes of his colleague a.k.a. his wife and his son. "Apparently that instable star, that nova, that pulses the entire time in a different spectrum than the other bright and duller stars do, has just started to shudder violently again."

"If it will also turn to a duller star like the other two did…" Linh mused aloud, while her son's attention was back on the news when Fa's cell received a text message just as the news-anchor gave the all-clear that the storm was over.

"The star just returned to its _normal_ abnormal pulsing spectrum." The man explained after he had read the message.

"Uno." Tian placed a card on the table and grinned. "You know it's funny that the star stopped its activity in the same moment that tornado has vanished." Suddenly the eyes of both his parents were on him. "Umm… did I say something wrong?"

His father shook the head and got to his feet, his cell in his hand. "No, Tian. On the contrary." He dealt the number of the observatory and gave instructions to compare the activity-times with the appearances of tornados in Tokyo - maybe his son had just found THE connection.

* * *

Later that evening, Fa returned to his work, when he had gotten a very startled and surprised call from one of his subordinates that the times would indeed match down to the second. This was a quantum jump. He needed to have a look at the data and have his team search for events matching the timing of the other two strange stars that were now shining constantly duller from the sky.

Meanwhile his wife stayed at home, though Tian could tell that she was somewhat torn between her worry for Xing and the riddles that awaited her at the observatory.

She had just brought her daughter to bed. It had saddened her that the girl didn't want to hear a fairytale from the book Linh usually read to her when she was at home. But this was not as hard as the circumstance that Xing didn't hug her or kiss her good night on the cheek like the girl used to do. Her daughter was distant and cold.

"Is she like this every day?" Linh asked her son when she returned to the living room, where the boy watched some American detective story. "No smiles and happiness."

The boy contemplated for a moment – he didn't want to worry his mother even further, but he wouldn't lie. "Yes. One day she woke up and it was like she couldn't feel any emotions anymore." This information made his mother very calm, but he felt that he had to say something. "She's still Xing. She's still your daughter and my little sister." The boy said with determination in his voice.

* * *

A/N: Before questions arise: In the manga (Black Dandelion) there was shown that Dolls (Champ) also have stars (my interpretation of the shooting-star). In my Darker Than Black universe the stars of Dolls are constantly a little duller than the ones of contractors. Moratoria were told (in ep3&4) to be pulsing constantly, but when active even wilder – before they turn to Dolls (with THE exception of Mai) (another reason why I think Dolls do have stars).

Thanks to InflatedChimp to point out an error.


	9. Chapter 9

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life and A.J Sawyer. And thanks to InflatedChimp for pointing out a mistake.

Sorry this update took so long (and some of you are still waiting for an update for Black Dust), but I had to do overtime on my job almost every day and on the weekends I had to do the stuff that piled up during the week (grocery, cleaning the house, washing…). But thanks to the overtime I'll get two days off next week, so I'm positive that Black Dust will get an update, too.

And thanks to Wikipedia again.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 9

_Day 9_

The day of the sleep-examination had arrived and Tian had left the school earlier with the pretended excuse of terrible stomach-ache. He wanted to support his sister and he wanted to know first-hand what was wrong with her, so he arrived at home just in time to accompany his mother and sister to the doctor. His mother had other worries at the moment than to rack her brains about her son lying to his teachers.

During the long examination, Tian had to remain in the waiting area and his mother soon joined him while the assistant of the doctor explained Xing that the many cables attached to her head wouldn't hurt. The little girl only nodded and shook her head on the question if she needed anything – like a glass of hot milk – to get tired. Xing had by now figured out that the use of her new power made her tired, so she zapped the blanket a little – fully aware that nothing would happen to the fabric – yet it had the desired effect and the girl slept soundly a few minutes later.

XXX

Three hours had past and the doctor asked Linh to accompany him into his office, where her daughter already waited. Anxiously the woman hugged her child and sank down in one of the chairs across from the doctor – his large desk separating them.

The gray-haired man smiled at the worried mother and the unreadable child. "First the good news. The sleep-EEG of your daughter is just like it is supposed to be. She has the N-REM phases and enters the REM phase like any other healthy person about an hour later. A narcoleptic would experience the REM sleep within the first five minutes. Your daughter doesn't have narcolepsy."

"And the bad news?" Linh asked tentatively.

"Usually people do have dreams at night, but sometimes you just don't remember having them the next morning." Now the man's forehead wrinkled into a frown. "But your Xing doesn't have any measurable brain activity during the REM phase which suggests that she doesn't have any dreams at all. It's usually very low during REM, but we couldn't get any data at all in your daughter's case." He lifted up a print-out of a long straight line. "I haven't seen this before… Maybe this is the reason for your daughter's fatigue." He pushed the sheet back into the heap of other data collected during the sleep-session and folded his hands on top of Xing's file. His concerned gaze was on Linh. "I would like to make an MRI. I'll call a friend at the hospital and make an appointment for you."

"Do you think it's a tumor?" Linh was really scared for her little girl. A brain-tumor could also explain the strange behavior.

The physician turned towards the child. "Do you have head-aches or does anything else hurt? Is your vision blurry?"

Xing shook her head. "No. All is fine." She didn't really understand the adults' worries – especially not the emotions of the doctor towards her - the man was a stranger, yet he was apparently concerned for her well-being. Until now she had been sure that nothing was wrong with her – the day before she had paid attention to when exactly she got tired and came to the conclusion that it had something to do with her ability. Maybe the use of her powers simply exhausted her body to the point that only sleep could recharge it? She had tried to tell her mother that she could stop being tired during the day, but Linh mistook it as fear of the doctor's appointment.

By now Xing was glad that she had made this examination. Apparently there was something wrong with her – the data didn't lie.

* * *

On their way home, the three stopped at a Pizza Hut and Linh had told her son everything the doctor had said. At first she hadn't wanted to do so, but the boy was persistent and seeing his worry in his large blue eyes broke her heart.

Linh forced a smile and looked at her daughter, who didn't play with the stuffed puppy she had gotten with her children's menu. "Let's speak of something more delightful. What do you want for your birthday, Xing?"

The girl in question stared at her mother. Her birthday. Usually she would be so excited that she wouldn't stop speaking of the things she wanted as presents, but now she realized that it was a day like any other. "Nothing."

Linh frowned. "C'mon, think about it. There has to be something. How about a new manga? Or a game for your gameboy?"

Xing figured that she needed to say something to make her mother stop. At first she was about to say that it was a day that didn't needed to be celebrated, but then another thought welled up from deep within her - surprising the child a little bit. "I don't want to be sick." But those words didn't have the desired effect to make her mother shut up – even worse: tears welled up in the woman's blue eyes.

"Oh, sweetie… I promise we'll find out what's wrong with you." She took a deep breath and calmed somewhat. She didn't want to make a scene in the restaurant and her children were already feeling bad enough. They deserved to brighten up. "You need to laugh more. Laughing is healthy." This brought a disbelieving expression on both her children's faces – though Xing's switched quickly back to her expressionless one. "We'll make a big birthday-party, Xing. Who do you want to invite aside from Minako and Asuka?"

"No one."

Linh was a little surprised. Last year they had trouble to convince Xing that eighteen kids were way too much and that she needed to set priorities. "Only the two?"

Xing finished her pizza and shook her head. "No one."

Tian saw that the two were talking past each other. So he finished the fifth slice of his extra-large pizza with two big bites. "Mama, Xing doesn't want to invite anyone at all. She isn't friends with Minako and Asuka anymore."

Linh turned her shocked face from her son to her daughter, who simply nodded. "Is this true? Why aren't you friends anymore? Did you argue?"

"No. I just don't need to be friends with them any longer. And I don't need a birthday-party."

Linh's questioning gaze centered on her son. "Did something happen at school?" It kind of hurt her that she needed to ask Tian to get up-to-date with his sister's life – she was their mother and should know this first-hand.

The boy sighed. "Apparently there was no fight or stuff, but Xing simply decided that the two were only distracting her from classes to the point that she got punished and they were misusing their friendship to get Xing's homework." This was the version he had also told Minako's mother the day after her call.

Linh's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, I'm sorry, honey." She smiled at her daughter reassuringly. "You'll find better friends quickly."

"I don't need any friends."

For a moment her mother stared at her, but then returned her gaze to her food, guessing that her daughter was simply hurt at the moment about her former friends' behavior. "Then we'll make a small party with just the four of us." She inwardly hoped that the girl would have found a new friend till then to invite.

"I don't need a party." Xing repeated and her brother was already contemplating that a party and celebrating a birthday was irrational in his sister's new train of thought.

* * *

That evening, the door to Tian's room opened and Xing walked in, finding her brother reading on his bed. "Mama is crying." She stated matter-of-factly and sat down next to the boy, who immediately put his arm around her shoulders.

"I know." Tian muttered and wiped a tear from his dark eyes. He had stared onto the very same page for the last half hour.

"I don't think I'm sick. I feel fine." Xing said after a long moment.

Her brother pulled her closer and pressed a kiss to her head. "I hope you're right."

Later that night, their parents came into their son's room and found both siblings asleep in each others' embrace. Linh smiled and stifled a sob at the cute sight. What would their son do if something happened to his sister – they loved each other deeply. Fa wrapped the blanket, he had fetched from Xing's bed, around his beautiful children's bodies and took his wife by the hand to lead her out of the room.

* * *

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter.

Concerning the sleep-data: I think it was ep 15/16 where we were told that Dolls have no measurable brain-activity during their sleep – also no dreaming for them, yet Kanami said that she guesses that those creatures DO dream, but they just can't collect any data with their devices. And we were already told before by Mao that Contractors also don't dream, officially – and Contractors are just some (unfinished) kind of Doll (see Gaiden).

Oh, and the restaurant they visited HAD to be a Pizza Hut, of course - those sometimes not so subtitle advertises for that certain fastfood chain popped up during the entire first season of DTB. My sis and I made a game out of it, who notices one of the ad-signs first while watching the show. In one episode there were even 5 'hidden' ads...


	10. Chapter 10

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life and A.J Sawyer.

The zap zap in front of her family will come in the next chapter or the one after it.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 10

_Day 15_

The Chiangs had found a new routine in the last few days. Fa was spending only a few hours per night at the observatory and was the rest of the day on call. Linh was at work while the children were at school and her husband at home sleeping and she returned in time to pick up Xing. This way the girl wouldn't be alone.

But soon her parents noticed that their former very sociable daughter was spending more and more time by herself – even though they tried their best to stir her interest in group activities. But neither the new board game nor some multiplayer game for the wii - Fa had presented his children with - brought any reaction from his daughter. Tian had smiled and could hardly wait for the permission to rip off the plastic wrappings while his sister only stood there without any emotion on her stoic features.

The day Fa had bought the wii game, the girl had approached him and asked 'why he would spend money on an unnecessary item'. The man had only stared at her and answered that he had wanted to make her and her brother happy. But Xing had only said that it was irrational and had turned to leave for the garden. He had been at a loss and still was. But somehow his son had been able to persuade her to at least come and try the game for a little while. But instead of laughing like her brother, Xing remained bored and her eyes half closed – without any twinkle of happiness.

Instead of spending time with her parents, like she had always wanted, the little brunette was playing in the garden alone. Linh called it that way, though watching ants and other insects wasn't playing, but the worried mother was at least glad that the girl showed interest in at least one thing.

The stars had apparently lost their appeal to her daughter. They had spent two nights at the lake stargazing like they had promised their children, but Xing had immediately wandered off a little. Curious, Linh had approached her daughter and watched her draw a line into the soil with a stick only to fill it with water from the lake. Then she pressed the end of her stick into the ground next to her river – each with a greater distance to the water - and began catching bugs, ants and other insects only to place them each into the holes. Linh wasn't very fond of the idea that her daughter played with insects, but at least she showed some creativity in building a miniature town for her temporary pets. So she let her be and joined her two men and the new stars.

Now the day of the MRI scan had arrived and the entire family accompanied Xing to the hospital. Her parents were repeating that she didn't need to fear this examination and the large machine. It wouldn't hurt and afterwards they had funny pictures of her brain. But Xing didn't cry. She only held onto her brother's hand – or rather he on hers. Linh had anticipated that the girl would throw a tantrum as soon as the nurse came and she had to let go off her brother, but nothing happened. Even when she was shown the large machine, the child remained calm.

* * *

Inside the tube, Xing did as she was told and didn't move one millimeter. It wasn't as hard as the doctor had described it. She would simply lie there and think while the machine around her did its job.

The girl knew that she should be afraid – of the tests and the possibility to be sick. But her fear was only a shadow of its former self and was easily ignored. She knew she didn't _want_ to be sick and she _wanted_ to live, but there was no emotion intense enough that would cause her to cry hysterically like it made her mother do. She wondered why her parents had tried to pretend everything would be fine the last few days, though they were everything else than fine. She had heard her mother cry at night and had seen her father's worried eyes rest on her during the day. Maybe they had tried to be rational and cast their irritating emotions aside… but this was no logical conclusion since they forced smiles onto their features every time they were in one room with Tian or her. Rational would have been to take the situation as it was.

When the scan was done the middle-aged doctor helped her down from the stretcher. "You did this very very well! Like a pro, young lady." The physician praised with a smile. "And? It wasn't that scary, was it?"

Xing looked up with her half-closed eyes. "I was not afraid." Why should she? She was warned that it would be loud while they took pictures of her brain? And she had no problem with small rooms, so there was no reason to be afraid of the machine. They were only making tests to find out what was wrong with her. This was rational.

The doctor chuckled about the girl's mock bravery. "You are very brave. The nurse will give you a candy."

"Come with me, sweetie." A young woman with a long, brunette braid said and took her by the hand to lead her out into the waiting area where her family was sitting. As soon as the door opened her parents had stood up and Linh kneeled down before her daughter, her hands on the girl's small shoulders. "How was it, Xing?" She asked with a forced smile.

"Fine." The child answered like she had done hundreds of MRIs before and walked over to her brother to sit down next to him.

"Did it hurt?" Tian asked as both of them took a candy from the nurse. He knew by now that she could feel pain. She just didn't cry. She could only bear it better than before.

"No. It was only loud." Xing was _glad_ that her brother didn't force any fake emotions onto his face. He was worried, you could see it clearly in his large dark eyes and the small frown on his forehead, but he kept his emotions at bay. She was _grateful_ that he at least didn't complicate those irritating feelings she had a hard time to comprehend.

"Drs. Chiang, would you please follow me to Dr. Ishida's office." The nurse said and with a last glance onto her children Linh followed her husband into the near office.

* * *

Inside, they shook hands with the physician, who then showed them a series of pictures of their daughter's brain. "As you can see there is no tumor, bleedings or lesions in her brain."

Both parents let out a breath they hadn't known they were holding in. "So her brain is fine?" Linh asked to ensure that she had heard correctly.

The man smiled. "Yes. Everything is like it is supposed to be." His eyes then flew over a sheet of paper. "Her blood sample was also without any pathological findings. As far as I can say, your daughter is healthy."

Fa frowned, not happy with this explanation. "But she falls asleep during the day and her mood has changed dramatically."

"I can understand your worries, but her brain is not the reason." Dr. Ishida closed the file on his tabletop and looked straight at the Chiangs. "I'm sure you have heard in the news of some people suddenly changing their whole personality. Your daughter is not the only one and everybody copes differently." He paused for a moment. "I have spoken with a few colleagues at Tokyo's hospital and New York's. The number of cases of autistic-like people almost exploded in the last two weeks. There are even adults and old people suddenly showing signs of autism, who had led a completely normal life until now. Then there is this case of a teenage boy in Europe, who suddenly got the urge to place his hand onto a hot burner every time he had repaired a car in his father's garage." He saw the horrified look of the black haired woman sitting across from him. "His parents said that he's suddenly like a magician when it comes to broken machines, but his hands are already so badly hurt that he can't hold a screwdriver anymore."

Linh had covered her mouth with her hand in shock. This sounded really awful. "Do you know what causes this…. This?"

Dr. Ishida shook his head. "Maybe it is indeed only a trauma about the happenings almost three weeks ago or it is indeed a reaction to the radiation… but only the Gate knows… The Japanese government wants to send a group of international scientists inside the Gate next month, maybe they'll find out something." He took a deep breath, this was not what worried parents wanted to hear. "There is a study in Osaka working in collaboration with Boston, London and Berlin about brain-activity scans of affected people in different situations. I could ask a friend to get your daughter into the Japanese study-group."

"Osaka?" The Chiangs shared troubled gazes. They surely wanted the best for their daughter, but letting her be a guinea pig was hardly in the interest of their already traumatized child. Maybe she could join a later group, when they would have already gathered some data and have a clue what was wrong with the people. Until now, they had their child under control and all accessible sockets locked. "We have to think about this, doctor. But thank you for the offer." Fa eventually said.

"The only thing I can suggest is that you lead a diary about your daughter's doings: When she sleeps, eats, what she plays and so on. Maybe you'll find a pattern." This was all Dr. Ishida could do.

* * *

On their way home, Fa looked into the rearview mirror to get a hold of his daughter's emotionless eyes. "Xing, do you have the urge to stick your finger into the socket?" He saw both his children frown – even if it was only slightly in Xing's case.

"No, this is irrational behavior." This made her father sigh in relief and smile at her.

"Do you have any urges? Anything you really need to do?" her mother probed.

Xing thought a short moment, those questions were very strange even for her emotion driven parents. "Aside from eating, sleeping and using the toilet, no."

Maybe their daughter wasn't one of those probably Gate-affected people after all.

* * *

A/N: For clarification: Xing didn't play with the insects, they are her guinea pigs. The 'autistic-like people' the doctor mentioned are Dolls.

I hope you liked this update.

Thanks to InflatedChimp for pointing out some errors.


	11. Chapter 11

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, InflatedChimp, tityuio and A.J Sawyer.

_InflatedChimp_: Sometimes I think your read my mind… Anyway, concerning your question with the study-group: It's yes and no. I'll come to this in Black Dust (since Bai isn't participating, but Yin did in my DTB universe, just in another group in Europe, but the Syndicate has its people everywhere).  
Thanks for the corrections.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 9 years; Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 11

_Day 23_

Today was Xing's ninth birthday and Tian had gotten up an hour earlier to help his mother make a beautiful strawberry-cake with a lot of vanilla-cream as icing. On top of it was a pink wax-cake with nine candles atop. They had placed it onto the low table in the living-room and arranged the colorful wrapped presents around it. The presents had been hard to decide on and Tian knew his parents had bought a Barbie and the newest Sailor Moon 3DS game - both things his sister had wished for before she had changed. But now, he guessed that she wouldn't grace those useless and time-wasting things a second glance. He had tried to talk his parents out of those ideas, but both meant that she was a child and there was enough time to present her with _useful_ things when she was older. So it was on him to find something his little sister would indeed _like_ – as far as her new self could like anything at all. After wandering an entire afternoon through the mall, he had found two things she might find useful.

Like every school-morning, Xing was dressed and combed half an hour before she had to leave the house. When she entered the living-room, anticipating her mother and brother, she was a little surprised to also find her father there. All three sat around the low table and her presents and cake with bright smiles on their features. "Happy birthday, Xing!" They shouted in unison and her parents got up to hug her. The girl only stood there and stared at the cake.

She didn't feel anything, she knew her old self would have felt. This day was nothing special. It was them, who made it something special, but for Xing her pancakes would have been enough. Yet she took in the cake and the candles-cake on top, her father was currently lightening. "A cake on a cake?" She eventually said and let herself being gently pushed towards the table by her mother.

Both parents smiled down at their cold and controlled child, hoping that at least the presents would bring some kind of human reaction onto their child's face. "Blow the candles and make a wish."

"A wish, baba?" Xing muttered after a while – the candles shrinking slowly while the wax threatened to spoil the icing. A wish – she knew the concept of dreams and wishes, yet this entire concept was irrational. A dream was no reality and wouldn't become so just by wishing for it.

"Yep, your heart's desire." Her father repeated with an encouraging smile.

"I don't have one." The girl answered in her even tone.

Tian had seen this coming – or something along the lines. "Simply blow the candles, Xing." The boy hadn't finished his sentence when the angry gazes of both his parents were digging into him. Yeah, fine, he wanted a piece (or three) of the cake, but he also knew that they wouldn't convince his sister so she would make a wish.

Xing's eyes switched from the cake to her brother and then back – blowing the candles.

"So… did you wish for something?" Her mother asked curious while cutting the cake.

"It's irrational to wish for something pointless." She could have answered with a simple 'no', but maybe her parents would finally understand that she didn't rely on her emotions any longer. Why couldn't they be more like her big brother, who wasn't _bugging_ her with this nonsense?

On those words, Linh had almost let go of the knife. What was wrong with her little girl? "Do you want a piece of cake, Xing?" She asked tentatively.

The girl only nodded and took the offered plate. When everyone had a piece, they started to eat and after a few bites Fa lifted up a box with a cute bunny and flowers wrapping. "How about you unwrap your presents while eating. You have to get going soon." Usually their children were allowed to open only one present before school and the rest would have to wait till the late afternoon when all four of them were back home. But today, Fa and Linh would change the tradition in favor to see their daughter smile.

Xing looked at the present with her half-closed eyes before taking it without showing any signs of emotions. Still chewing, she placed her fork away and carelessly ripped the beautiful paper apart – deciding that it was too small to be used again. Before the Gates appeared, Xing would have tried her best to keep the bunny's and flowers intact, even if it was just a scrap of paper – she would have treasured it. But now, neither the cute wrapping nor the 3DS game held any significance to her.

The girl held the game in her hands for a moment, before looking up to her parents while placing the present to the floor next to her. "Thank you." Her brother had explained to her the former day that you say 'thank you' in exchange for a present or pleasantry, no matter if you like the thing you got or not. She remembered her mother had told her something similar when she was still really small. This made some sense whatsoever. If you cast the emotions aside, then those two words would still be a hollow reward, yet better than nothing.

Linh tried to hide her disappointment about the missing positive reaction and offered her a larger present. "Here's another one. From your baba and me."

Xing just ate another bite of her birthday cake, before taking this larger box and opened it – carefully this time. But as soon as one corner of the box scratched the wrapping paper open when she tried to slide it carefully out, Xing tore the rest of the paper off – it was now damaged and of no further use. Without gracing the fairy Barbie a closer look, Xing placed it next to the DS game. "Thank you." She said emotionlessly and got back to her sweet breakfast.

Tian noticed the sad faces of his parents. It hurt him that they had tried so hard – his father surely was tired to death after working the entire night at the observatory, yet had helped to set the table. The boy gazed at his sister and retrieved a small present from behind his back. "I know you think celebrating a birthday irrational, but I still got you something."

Xing had really thought that at least her brother had understood that 'nothing' meant 'nothing'. But since it was already bought, she might as well take it. After finishing her cake the girl unwrapped the last present, the one by her big brother. Inside were two things: a blue scrunchy and a small box. The girl looked up to her brother's smiling face.

"You said you wanted to let your hair grow a little longer, so I thought you might want to make a pony-tail on hot days." Until now, her mother had mainly decided about her daughter's haircut and so the girl always had chin-long hair.

The little brunette took in her brother's smiling face for a moment. He had a point, she hadn't thought about. This scrunchy might indeed come in handy. "Thank you, oniichan." Then her gaze travelled over to the small box. She carefully opened it to reveal a rather large silver watch. Her former self had always worn an old and already broken Hello Kitty watch she had gotten for her seventh birthday – she had only kept on wearing it because she had loved the watch so much. But now the damaged item was useless for the girl and she had thrown it away weeks ago.

Xing carefully lifted the watch up. Her fingertips brushed against its back and some engraving, so she turned it around. "May your star never fall." The kanji for 'star' was the same one as for 'Xing', giving the sentence a double-meaning – although no one of the four knew how accurate this sentence described the girl's situation.

Before she could say anything about how irrational it was that he had spent money onto those words, the boy turned the watch around in her small hands and pointed onto the tiny buttons beyond the digital display. "This is no normal watch, Xing. You have a countdown, three different alarms to set, the date displayed and you can even use it as a calculator, so don't let anyone at school have a closer look at the watch." With every word he had said, her ocean-blue eyes grew larger and she eventually slipped the watch on. "The strap can be shortened." He said with a bright smile as he watched his sister inspect the watch.

Xing was indeed surprised about the thought behind this present. This was indeed something she could use for many years to come. She guessed that her brother was solely reacting onto his emotions for her, he knew she thought of as irrational and a hindrance, yet she was _glad_ about his effort to make her happy. It was a good thing she had her big brother, she realized this not for the first time, but now this realization was somehow stronger.

She remembered like her old self would have reacted and how other people react in situations like this one, so she leaned forward to hug her brother. "Thank you, oniichan." He really deserved this.

Tian had spent his allowance for almost two months, but it was worth to have this reaction of his little sister. He held her close and smiled brightly from ear to ear while he saw his mother shed tears of happiness about this small, yet for Xing big emotional display.

* * *

A/N: I hope you liked it.

You may wonder why I mention Sailor Moon again, but apparently there is currently a new season in the making (I so hope there's a lot of Haruka, Michiru and Hotaru in it) and I grew up with this show (there was no way you could completely ignore that hype - I had tried) and at the moment they dug that show up and are airing it again on pay-tv (nostalgia), so I thought (since DTB takes place in a 'not so distant future') that the kids might also like that ridicules brain-wash-show…


	12. Chapter 12

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life, tityuio and A.J Sawyer.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 9 years; Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 12

_Day 27_

The children were at the attic, looking for an old star atlas, Tian thought might come in handy for his paper presentation the upcoming week. The wooden floor creaked beneath their steps and small clouds of dust made the already hot air in the room even more unbearable. So the boy went over to the roof-light and opened it, only to take immediately a few steps back. He really hated heights and the lower brim of the window only reached his tights and gave the impression that there wasn't anything between him and the high-angled roof. Not in a lifetime would he look down from a roof of a high building, not for all the money in the world.

His heartbeat was slowing down as he calmed and the boy concentrated his attention towards the stack of cardboard-boxes labeled with books. He approached them with his sister in tow. While Tian lifted the boxes down and placed them next to each other, Xing was looking inside for the desired book. When he just placed yet another heavy box down, a large spider crawled up from the cardboard's side and on top. Tian's eyes widened. He wouldn't scream like his sister used to do – which she didn't do at the moment – but he wasn't fond of those creatures either. The boy was looking around and was about to reach for and old rag in a corner when his sister's calm voice stopped him.

"I'll take care of it, oniichan." Xing said and approached the animal, her old self had despised and feared. Under the watchful eyes of her brother the little girl stretched her index-finger towards the insect until she was almost touching it. Then her eyes glowed in an eerie red and her in blue wrapped body lighted up the dim room when a lightening jumped from her fingertip over to the moribund spider.

Just as quickly as those lights had appeared they were gone and his sister was staring at him like nothing special had happened. Tian swallowed hard, his eyes pinned to the zapped insect. Did this just really happen? Fear was knotting his gut and he carefully looked up to the girl, his kind sister had become. What the hell was she?

A few minutes must have past by and he was still staring onto her while Xing was already back at looking for the atlas. The boy contemplated the situation as calmly as he could. She didn't make the impression to want to harm him and she seemed to have known of this power. So, if she had wanted to use it on him, then she would have had plenty of opportunities. His stunned state slowly lightened up, yet he kept his distance to the girl. "What… Sinc-… How did you do that?" He eventually brought out.

The girl looked first up to her brother than back at her hand and shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno… I simply do it."

She seemed as clueless as he felt and Tian dared to approach his supernatural sister a few steps. He looked at her with concerned eyes and marveled anew what had happened with her the night the moon and stars had vanished. What was it that had made the Gates appear while it had taken his sister's soul away? Maybe the expedition into the Hell's Gate in two weeks would bring answers on how to return his beloved sister to the kind and happy girl she used to be.

There was no reason to tell his parents about this ability, they would only freak out – they had enough to worry about already - and Xing seemed to have it under control just fine. "Xing, don't use this power again."

Then there came her favorite word again. "Why?"

"This is not normal. You know that you normally can't zap a spider with your finger, right?" People would surely take her away from them to find out what made her different, or worse they would kill her in fear of her. She was still his sister – at least Tian hoped so.

"I'm not normal?" Xing contemplated this information while yawning. It was true that humans didn't possess such powers – only in mangas and comics – and she hadn't done so until recently, but it felt so normal having this ability. It was a part of her.

Tian made a face and hugged his sister tentatively. "You are my sister and I love you. It doesn't matter to me." Though a part of the boy felt uneasy about this entire revelation. "If someone would know, they would take you away and make horrible experiments with you." He knew those weren't only made-up scenarios by Hollywood.

Xing understood this and nodded, her head resting on his shoulder. She would be extremely careful from now on, but this feeling or knowledge that came along her ability kind of gave her the hunch that there was even more to her powers than just electrical currents. She wanted to know what she was capable of.

* * *

From then on, an incredible weight lifted from her parents' hearts as Xing would return to a normal sleep pattern – the naps were only exceptions anymore. Her behavior didn't change, yet her mother decided it was now fine to work longer at the observatory. Her daughter seemed to be better and at her work were great changes underway.

The government had started to build another building adjoined to the observatory. Not even the boss of the observatory, Fa, had been told the reason for the new room or the modification of the inner of the already existing building.

After Fa's theory about the star's behaviors and the tornados was verified, his team was even able to pinpoint the other two novas to earthquakes in Africa and gravitation anomalies in Chile. But they also found out that some shudders of the usually inactive bright stars would match in timing with other phenomena like a series of fires in Chicago and especially cruel deaths of Hungarian people by something the crime scene investigators determined to be a vacuum – with children's bodies nearby that had bleed to death.

It had taken almost three weeks, many sleepless nights and overtime – not to mention the countless phone-calls and emails to news-stations and local authorities all over the world – but they were sure that those new stars were more than just shining cosmic bodies.

The Japanese government seemed to be impressed by his team's findings and was indeed believing in the correlation. Therefore, Fa got the order to monitor all stars – of course with the help of the other Japanese observatories – and report all activities immediately.

Pushing the fascination of the new stars and the strange phenomena aside, Fa had a really bad feeling every time he saw one of the thousands of stars shudder and sparkle in different spectra.

* * *

A/N: This was short, yet I hope you liked it. At least a little zap-zap in front of Hei.

Thanks to InflatedChimp and Dear4Life for pointing out a mistake.


	13. Chapter 13

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life, nira, A.J Sawyer and guest.

Thanks to InflatedChimp and Dear4Life for pointing out the strange wording in one sentence. I'm grateful for your corrections and yes, it should be a hint towards Havoc.

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 9 years; Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 13

_Day 32_

Xing slowly woke on the floor of her room. Her ears registered the sound of someone crying close by. Not someone, her brother. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked over to where her brother was kneeling with a small red-brown body in his hands, while their parents were crouched down next to him, comforting him. "Oniichan?"

The boy's red and puffy eyes centered on her angrily. "Why?" he said at a loss, his voice broken by sobs. He had believed he understood his 'new' sister little by little and then she had to do _this_. "Why did you use that power to kill him, Xing?" Behind him, his parents looked quite shocked and confused.

The little girl sat up completely and eyed her brother with her half-closed eyes. "It was of no use for anyone." The hamster belonged to her. Why did her brother care?

How could she say this?! "But it didn't harm you, ever!" The boy's anger took over his sadness, yet he tried to stay reasonable. Although it was hard. "I know you didn't love him anymore, but this was not right!"

"Why?"

"Because people don't do this!" he screamed frustrated. It was tiring to always find a rational explanation, his sister would accept. Why did she question the rules society works under for thousands of years?

"This is no rational answer." She saw the anger and hatred on her brother's tear-stained features. "Your emotions keep you from seeing this incident rationally, oniichan."

"You can't kill animals, Xing!" Her mother brought out horrified, still not believing that her little girl had indeed killed her pet.

"Why not? I don't understand your point." Xing look from her mother to her father and eventually to her brother, finding no answers only unnecessary emotions.

"Because… because his existence didn't influence yours or anyone's in a negative way! Therefore there was no reason for you to kill him!" Tian tried and saw his parents look a little startled his way – this wasn't like he would usually talk.

"His food had cost money." Xing simply said.

"That's still no reason for killing an animal, Xing!" her father screamed agitated – what had they done wrong to have their daughter become a sociopath. Her spirit-less eyes and that lidded gaze were creeping him out, now more than ever.

Tian took in a deep breath and tried to push his sadness and anger into the back of his mind. She was right, he was too emotional too come up with an explanation his rational sister would understand. "We two also cost our parents money and are of no value to them."

"Tian!" Linh was crying now. She shouldn't have resumed her work at the observatory – her children weren't ready to be all alone all day. "What are you talking?! We love you!"

Tian looked at his mother for a brief moment. "Emotions don't matter to Xing anymore." His gaze returned to his sister, while his suppressed anger and sadness began to lighten up – it indeed helped to concentrate only onto the facts.

"You said that they need us to take care of them when they are old." Xing looked at her brother. Was there an error in this concept? It had sounded logically.

"Our parents are wealthy and have savings for when they are old. They don't need us." The boy didn't miss the horrified looks he received from his parents.

"You lied." It was no accusation.

"Not necessarily. That concept works for many people." Tian looked his sister straight into the eyes. "Do you understand now why you shouldn't go around killing animals or people?" The boy was himself surprised and shocked that he also included human beings, but he wanted to make sure that next time it wouldn't be Minako or someone else.

Xing nodded slowly. "I begin to understand."

"As long as someone or something doesn't threaten your life, there is no reason to kill them. They just want to live their lives. Just like you do." the boy explained rather calmly and left the room with the dead animal in his hands, walking past his devastated parents. "I'll bury him in the garden."

He was right, she didn't _want_ to die. A moment past and Xing followed her brother to the kitchen – her horrified parents on her heels – and watched him take a small paper-box-wrapping of some crackers and a plastic bag. "I'll help you." The girl suddenly said, not sure herself why she wanted to make her brother feel better.

But the boy didn't bother to look at her. "No, Xing. He at least deserves someone to bury him, who really had feelings for him."

* * *

Outside in the garden, Tian had found a place at the edge of his mother's flower-bed near the fence, where he would bury the poor little pet. Now alone, he was letting his emotions free rein as he dug the hole with a small shovel. Tears welled up in his midnight-blue eyes and flew down his cheeks in thick rivers. "Why?!" He stabbed with the shovel into the soil. His anger and desperation about his sister's change were welling up in the young boy. "Why?!" Another stab. His beloved sister would have never done something like this. Never. She was kind. This thing in her body was a monster. Cold. Calculating. Without consciences. "Why her?!" he pressed out angrily between sobs, his vision blurry.

"There are still emotions left inside your sister." an angelic voice said and made Tian look up startled, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "Don't give up on her. You have to keep trying to reach her heart." On the other side of the fence stood a blond girl about his age, clad in a pink body-suit. She smiled down on him warmly and her friendly amber eyes sparkled with confidence as she wrapped a grass blade around the stipes of daisies.

Tian eyed the girl angrily. "What do you know?!" The words came out harsher than he had intended, while he still marveled about the foreigner's good Japanese and her knowledge about his sister. She seemed nice and hadn't deserved to be on the receiving end of his anger and frustration. Yet it struck him strangely that this girl seemed to have waited for him to come out and have his outburst.

The blond wasn't affronted by his tone and kept her smile in place. "I know that she needs her big brother. Now more than ever."

Tian frowned and took the offered miniature bunch of flowers from her hand. He tried to remember where they might have met before, but he came up empty-handed. A blond in an Asian country… he would have remembered her. Especially that smile and her kind eyes. "Do I know you?" the boy asked confused, his temper had cooled somewhat.

"Not yet." she responded and before the black haired boy could question her further, her eyes wandered up to a spot behind him. "She still has to find her balance with all those changes the Gates brought upon her." The boy looked slowly up to where her amber eyes were glued to: Xing standing in the entrance of his home, looking their way. "Be her teacher… and her student."

From the corner of his eyes Tian watched the blond girl walk away. When she vanished behind a large bush, he thought he had heard her say "I'll see you, Hei.". But this sentence made less sense than the rest she had said.

The girl's words, as confusing as they were, had somehow calmed him and he allowed his sister to help him bury the hamster. The sun was slowly hiding behind the trees at the horizon and Tian placed the daisies onto the tiny grave while his sister stood next to him.

Xing didn't exactly understood why, but she didn't like it that her brother was angry at her and sad because of her. She knew this thought alone was irrational, but it was still there. "I won't kill again." she eventually mumbled.

"Good."

* * *

While their children were in the garden, Linh watched them scared from a window. What was wrong with both her children? Xing was a heartless, emotionless girl – like a robot – and their son was slowly imitating her way of speaking. Next would be that he, too, would stop to smile.

They had to do something and fast. Xing had a big psychological problem, this was for sure. And she didn't need to speak with her husband to know that he also was scared that their daughter would try to hurt one of them next. Linh especially feared for her kind son. He was always around his sister. She needed to never leave the two alone and if possible would try to separate them. This would ensure her son's physical safety and would keep him away from Xing's bad influence.

Her gaze followed the two children walk slowly towards the house and she cast a quick glance onto her husband. Fa was frantically looking for a suitable psychologist for their daughter on the net, someone who was specialized onto kids killing animals without remorse.

* * *

That evening both parents came to their daughter's room before the girl would sleep. Xing lay in her bed and watched them with her cold eyes as they sat down onto the edge of her bed. "Xing, are you sorry that you killed the hamster?" Linh asked concerned. She still couldn't believe that her sweet daughter was indeed capable of doing something like this.

"No." She noted the horrified expression of her parents' and added. "But I now understand that it wasn't necessary. I could have given him away."

"Didn't you feel anything when you hurt the animal?" her father tried, he really needed to have a talk with his son – hopefully he wasn't like his sister.

Xing thought a moment. "When I woke up, I was confused why Tian cried."

"Confused?" Her mother stared at her. "Nothing more?"

"No." The girl shook her head and both parents looked at her at a loss for a moment before leaving and locking the door behind them.

* * *

A knock sounded from Tian's door as he was about to turn his lights off. "Come in." He watched his parents enter. While his father approached his bed, his sobbing mother remained in the background. "It's about Xing." He had cooled down by now. Deep down he was still angry at his sister, but he kind of understood that it wasn't really her fault. She hadn't known any better. In her train of thought her action had been rational. But there were other options and maybe it was on him – just as the strange girl had said – to teach her that sometimes an irrational solution was still the better decision.

Fa eyed his son. "What is wrong with your sister? Why does she behave like this?"

Tian sighed and let his shoulder hang. "I don't know why but she believes emotions are irrational and a hindrance to a logical thinking." He saw his father frown. "It's like she has buried all her emotions."

"What's with you?" his mother asked carefully.

The boy looked over to her and forced a tiny smile. "I'm fine." He watched her approach and hugged him and he of course returned the embrace. "Xing doesn't know any better. We have to help her understand."

"We will… we will," promised his mother and pressed a kiss to her son's forehead before leaving. "Good night, Tian."

"Good night, mama, baba."

* * *

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter.

Many thanks to Dear4Life and InflatedChimp for pointing out some errors!


	14. Chapter 14

_DISCLAIMER:_ I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

_A/N_: Thanks for the reviews, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life, nira, A.J Sawyer, Hei is a beast, Legendslayerpus5 and guest.

Thanks to InflatedChimp and Dear4Life for pointing out some errors. I'm grateful for your help.

The Amber that appeared in the last chapter was from the time shortly after season 1 episode 16 (the meeting at the shrine).

_Ages:_ Xing/Bai: 9 years; Hei: 12 years

_Names_: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

_OC description:_

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes

* * *

Chapter 14

_Day 33_

The next morning during breakfast, Linh asked what had occupied her mind the half night. "Xing, what exactly did you do to the hamster? Why did you have to sleep?"

This got Tian's undivided attention. Maybe there was indeed a connection between his sister's exhaustion and her inhuman power. "She killed it with an electrical current."

"What?" the parents gaped at him in disbelief and the boy looked at his sister for help. It was her power after all.

Xing couldn't comprehend why her parents would question Tian's explanation – sure her ability was not normal, yet his explanation came to the point and they had seen the hamster. She lifted her hand towards her cup of tea and a lightening jumped from her fingers to the liquid.

Linh bleached, not at the sight of the electrical current, but because of the red eyes and that unnatural glow. She hardly dared to breathe. Her husband was also stunned in shock, but regained the ability to speak quicker. "Why did your eyes glow red?" This wasn't the best question but the only his mind could come up with at the moment. This sight had shaken him to the bones. Just _what_ was his daughter?

"My eyes?" Xing asked a little surprise as tiredness began to cloud her mind. By now she had learned that the more and stronger she used her power the quicker the sleep came and the longer it lasted. It was only logical this way.

Tian swallowed an entire slice of beacon and looked at his sister surprised. He had thought that she knew about her light-show. "Xing, your eyes glow red and your body blue every time you use that power." He saw her blank face with her eyes widened. "You didn't know…" The boy realized then that his sister was as clueless about the origin of her powers as they were.

"I didn't," Xing confirmed and contemplated this new information. It was good that she had never used that ability at school with so many witnesses around. This glow would give her away immediately.

"And… and the sleep?" her mother muttered, still stunned. She slowly slid away from her terrifying daughter.

"It's my payment for using this ability." This was the most logical conclusion the girl could come up with.

Their parents starred at the girl. The way she sat there and ate, she didn't seem like a thread, but it were her thoughts that made her unpredictable. If she could feel compassion again… happiness and sadness… then maybe they could live normally even though their daughter had that inhuman ability. "We made a doctor's appointment for you, Xing. This afternoon." As soon as Fa had described the incident with the purposely killed pet, the psychologist had squished them into her tight schedule as an emergency.

Xing only nodded. She was used to see doctors by now. She felt fine, but her parents apparently needed the doctors to understand that she had changed. They simply couldn't accept it as a fact like her brother did.

* * *

Inside the psychologist's office were many toys and the room itself looked everything else than an examination room. Xing sat patiently at a small table and the brunette woman, Dr. Tomoe, next to her.

"Do you want to play with the dolls?" the doctor asked with a smile and lifted a box with several Barbies up. She usually used those dolls for traumatized children to explain in a playful way what had happened to them, but with little girls those dolls were also helpful to break the ice.

"No." Wasn't she here to get some kind of examination? Playing was pointless to achieve what her parents had sent her here for.

"How about drawing? I'm sure you are a little artist."

Xing didn't fell for it. "How do you wanna know?"

The psychologist hadn't expected something like this. "Well, you look like a bright girl."

"Being bright does not mean that you are skilled. My father is bright but he can't cook, but brother on the other hand is skilled in cooking though he is only twelve years old."

"Umm… well…" The doctor stared at the girl bewildered. "Is there something you wanna talk about?"

Xing didn't see the point in talking to a stranger about something her parents could also ask her directly. "No. But my parents want you to talk to me."

* * *

Tian and his mother waited in the waiting area. As soon as the door opened, the boy could tell that the doctor was exhausted by his sister's questions. "She's quite inquisitive," the boy said and the doctor nodded. He then faced his sister and took her by the hand. "What was it about?"

"Dr. Tomoe said I should draw a picture since I would be a little artist. But she couldn't know this," Xing summed up and sat down next to her brother – in the spot her mother just had vacated.

"It's just an empty saying to encourage someone to do what they want them to do," Tian explained and startled the doctor and his mother.

"I figured that much, oniichan."

"Good." The boy smiled at his sister.

Dr. Tomoe observed the interaction of the siblings with interest. "May I have a word with you, Chiang-san?" the doctor asked and led the children's mother inside her office. "I couldn't detect any aggressivety. But your daughter doesn't show much emotion at all. Was this always the case?"

"No, it started a few weeks ago."

"During the conversation, Xing said that you and your husband work a lot and that her older brother takes care of her. She's quite fond of him." It had surprised her when the little girl said that she would always ask her brother first if she had a question – not her parents. "I think she's sad that you don't spend enough time with her. She even said that she understood that your work would be more important than them since the old sky is gone."

"She said this?!" Linh was shocked and struggled against her tears.

"I'll prescribe you an antidepressant that works great on children her age." She looked the worried mother straight into the eyes. "But I recommend spending more time with your children, both of them." The boy seemed to imitate his sister. "You should also have an eye on your son. He seems to support his sister's strange behavior."

* * *

When they returned home, Xing's room had a few new features. While his family was gone, Fa had added a lock to the window and another one to the door – only to be opened from outside the room.

Xing didn't feel put off about those secure arrangements or was angry. She didn't feel anything. She only wondered why they would suddenly lock her inside her room. So she asked her brother after supper and he simply said that their parents were afraid that she would hurt or kill someone with her power. They weren't sure that she had really understood why her deed with the hamster was wrong.

Xing understood this. Even thought there were emotions involved like fear, it was a rational decision of their parents to lock her during the night.

* * *

At night when both children were hopefully sleeping, Linh was still wide awake and crying. She sat next to her husband in their bed and blamed herself for all her children had to go through at the moment. "It's because we left them alone and treated them like small adults! But they are just children!" she cried and swore that she would stop working from now on. They would manage just fine with only Fa's salary.

* * *

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. I'm not entirely happy how it turned out.


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